Former jail guard gets three years in prison for trafficking drugs and breach of trust

A former Yorkton RCMP jail guard has been sentenced to 36 months in prison for trafficking drugs and breach of trust.

In March, Bonny Maddaford, 45, pleaded guilty in Yorkton Provincial court to one count each of trafficking marijuana and cocaine and one count of breach of trust for providing tobacco products to prisoners.

During a sentencing hearing April 24, the Court heard that between September and of November 2016, Maddaford had passed the contraband items, hidden in Kinder Eggs, to three different prisoners.

Shane Wagner, representing the federal Crown, noted Maddaford's lack of prior criminal record, her complete cooperation with authorities and early guilty plea as mitigating circumstances.

Wagner also noted that while payment for services had allegedly been offered, it appeared Maddaford had not received compensation for the trafficking.

The overriding aggravating circumstance, Wagner said, was that the offences took place while she was in a position of trust. Given that, he submitted, the Crown and defence had agreed to 30 months on each of the drug charges to be served concurrently and an additional six months consecutive on the breach charge.

Despite the fact it was a joint Crown-defence submission, defence attorney Thomas Campbell went into lengthy detail about how Maddaford's personal circumstances led to the offences, in part to counter a report in this newspaper on February 15 that said she had sold drugs to prisoners, which he called "erroneous."

Campbell noted that his client had been sexually abused between the ages of six and 12 years, traumatic experiences she had never been able to fully recover from. He explained that in June of 2016, Maddaford was suffering from depression and low self-esteem to the point of suicidal ideation, when a prisoner in cells befriended her. Campbell said the man groomed her, preying on her depressed state for ulterior motives.

Nevertheless, Campbell went on, when the man first asked his client to act as a go-between, she refused. This led to harrassment by him and others to the point Maddaford felt trapped. Campbell called it a "tragic thing that happened" because his client felt "coerced into being a conduit" was "scared" and "in over her head."

Campbell said she was happy to be caught and took full responsibility for her actions.

On her own behalf, Maddaford told the court she was not proud of her actions and hoped to one day understand how she managed to let it happen. She said she would use her time incarcerated to find herself.

Judge Ross Green characterized the case as “out of the ordinary” noting that while there were a number of mitigating circumstances, “at the same time, what you did was very serious.”

Green declared the joint submission a fit sentence and also imposed the mandatory DNA order and 10-year firearms prohibition.